Last Updated on July 27, 2026
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns that scammers are now impersonating the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to target those who already lost money to scams. This scheme involves artificial intelligence-created materials, spoofed websites and re-targeting victims.
Impersonators offer recovery assistance or claim to have recovered a victim’s stolen money, but the FBI says this is a ruse to access your financial information.
“Each of the tactics give victims a false sense of safety and security, while the actors impersonate or falsely affiliate themselves with government personnel or entities,” states the FBI. “The link may contain malicious code or may be used to collect more financial data to revictimize the person.”
One scheme involved a scammer creating fraudulent persona profiles and fake pages on social media networking sites to impersonate as an FBI agent that messaged their victim a link to update a submitted IC3 report.
The bureau says their crime complaint center will never directly contact you for information or money. They also do not work alongside law firms, crypto services or other non-law enforcement entity to investigate cases or recuperate stolen goods.
Another scam conducted a “deep fake,” which uses AI-generated videos to depict a senior FBI leader encouraging user to submit victim complaints to a spoofed EF3 website. This fake website resembled the IC3 site but only allowed users to interact with complaint submission. Other links returned the user to the home page.
To reach IC3 and report an issue, they advise typing ic3.gov into your address bar instead of using search engines, which may pop up imitators.
Visit IC3 for more tips on keeping yourself safe, spotting fake videos and messages, or reporting a scam.
~Ed Appel, Co-Chair, Safety-Security Committee~